


Overwatch Procedure

by Rotschild



Series: Monsters and Heroes [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 00:09:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13422537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rotschild/pseuds/Rotschild
Summary: Jesse got himself into trouble?  Well, the Reaper was in the vicinity, anyway.





	Overwatch Procedure

**Author's Note:**

> ***  
> The same as the first one, mildly edited after a year of practised english writing. Can't guarantee that it looks and sounds right, but I like this version a lot more. All together, I didn't change much of it, so... Meh.  
> ***
> 
> Second work in english and not a native speaker. I got cocky and didn't search for a beta reader, so... Uh..
> 
> If you want to help me out in the future or check over this one, just give me a message :]

As he squatted down on his vantage point under a moonless sky, Gabriel got again a little sidetracked by his wandering thoughts. As he spied down from the roof into the darkness of the street below, he came to think once more about the most pressing questions of his entire existence. 

Right now he sat in the deserted middle of who-the-fuck-knew-where and it was cold enough for the wind to paint frost tracery all over the windows he had passed till now. But Gabriel didn't feel the cold at all. Like through all the passed years since the explosion of Overwatch headquarters, he didn't feel anything. 

Was it the nanites? Since he woke up so completely broken down like this, he asked himself if he was even still human after all. Or if he was just the head of a nanite hivemind colony that consumed and adapted to a human consciousness. Was Gabriel Reyes still an actual person? Or was he just a memory, kept alive by tiny omnics that were programmed to never forget and let old ghosts rest in peace. Was there still a person called Gabriel Reyes? Or was it just the Reaper lurking and taking his place. 

Well, Gabriel guessed since he remembered his old life in vivid detail, all of it came down to choice. 

Did he want there to be a person underneath? Or did he just want to form a legend, so frightening that there was no space left for any humanity? 

Even after eight years, Gabriel hadn't done well with these two extremes. So he stayed both Reaper and Gabriel - and hoped that not too many people would call him out on it. 

But everything was still alright, in a way. Because he wasn't frightened anymore by what he was and what he could do like before. He understood now to use it all to his advantage. But he always remembered who he was underneath it all. 

That was exactly why he was here right now in the first place. 

With a deep humm he rested the barrel of his left shotgun over his shoulder and tipped quietly unsettled with his talon against the gun he leaned on his knee in an undefined rythm. The more time went by, the more uneasy he felt while he watched that damn hatch right under him on the opposite side of the narrow street. A conspicuous inconspicuous way down into the guts of the new and improved headquarters of the once so very famous deadlock gang. 

Gabriel should have cleared them up a long time ago, but he never did. Back then they had been... handy. At least for his kind of work. They produced so many skilled and desperate young recruits. Recruits like Cowboy McCree, the brightest star of Blackwatch - the moment he got his head out of his arse and accepted that he had indeed a future to speak of. 

Gabriel shouldn't be anywhere near this place. Deadlock stopped to be his responsibility the moment Overwatchs headquarter burned to the ground. 

But since he didn't care anymore, others had to do the job. Others like Winstons illegal Overwatch re-run. And because Cowboy Jesse McCree was a fundamentally sentimantal piece of shit, he had to volunteer to take out the hot garbage. And since Jesse McCree first of all had an impressive lack of any kind of impulse control, he stormed off without any backup as soon as he heard of the regrouping of his old friends and family. 

His bleeding heart just couldn't take the mention of collateral damage when it was about untied knots in his past. 

Gabriel kind of missed the days when Jesse had been just some selfish prat. It had been so much easier to have an eye on him since he never did anything that could bring him to harm if it weren't an easy pick. But that just wasn't who McCree was now. What he had grown into. 

An upstanding hero, completed by a horrible sense of fashion and so much charme, he could butter up even the most difficult targets all around the world. Well, to be honest, Gabriel was kind of relieved that the kid didn't start to wear his underwear above his trousers. 

But right now? 

Jesse McCree got himself in a frightening shitty situation all on his own. He came on like a storm, the way he always did. Shot some guys, left some others unconscious because they didn't try to kill him - and now he got himself inside the hideout but till now didn't make it out. 

And Gabriel? 

He was here because he got an untraceable transmission over his com link that got him quite curious. Damn Jack and his equally useless sentimentality. 

Well, the Reaper had been out in the west anyway, so what was there to lose. He decided to make his move and have a look. Jesse was once trained by him, so it would be pretty embarrassing if he got himself killed right on the threshold.

But now Gabriel waited for almost half an hour and there was still no movement but the groaning half dead foot soldiers and some guys that swarmed out to search for the intruder. 

"Hey there, big guy!"

Unexpectedly two delicate hands slapped down on his shoulders. In pure reflex the Reapers finger tightened on the trigger of his left shotgun. A loud bang echoed over the rooftops and the shotgun barrel slammed in recoil right against the back of his head.

"SOMBRA!!", he screeched in deadly annoyance as he whipped around, but found himself quite relieved that she was still standing. He didn't shoot her in some brain-dead accident. Grumbling he fought with his ringing ears, while the kid giggled a mocking greeting. 

"Hullow, there. A little twitchy, aren't we?", she grinned widely with waving fingers. Gabriel understood that, as she was his Informant, it wouldn't be a smart move to shoot her right in the face. That didn't mean he never wanted to. Sometimes he wanted it a lot.

"Aaaw, now come on, no sulking. Don't be embarrassed!", she cooed and patted his head like one would placate a barking dog. Credit was due, Sombra had to be the most courageous person Gabriel ever got to know. 

While inky dark tendrils of nanites formed themselves to demonic and fearful shapes just one step behind her back, quivering to loop themselves around her throat and throttle her senseless, Sombra just sat down beside Gabriel on the edge of the roof and dangled her legs in a sign of her usual excitement. 

"Oh, look!", she gasped and pointed down to the sandy street below where now after that loud noise some guys got together and found their fallen comrades by the door.

A lot of screaming and waving and "Did anyone actually see anything?!" and then they went on their merry way to alarm the base. They swarmed out like a pack of headless chicken, three guys on patrol outside and five stormed through the hatch down the stairs to their evil lair of doom.

Sombra rubbed her hands and grinned in excitement. "Ah, these guys! Thats why you ditched us in New London? Kinda lame. These guys are soo twenty years ago."

Gabriel growled in his defense and bared his monstrous teeth behind his mask. "That I ditched you", he spoke slowly and tried to swallow his hot blooded temper down. On Sombra it was pretty much wasted energy. She wouldn't listen, anyway. "Was a clear message for you especially to not stick your nose into my affairs...!"

Like predicted Sombra shrugged absolutely unimpressed. Working with people who knew him well had always been a pain. They never did what he said. It began with Jack in SEP and followed up with McCree and now with Sombra. At least Widowmaker followed his orders, but that was a given because she was compelled to. Gabriel didn't like to give her orders at all... 

"Most of the time your style of communication leaves a lot of room for different interpretations. Kinda like white noise. You should work on that", Sombra said, a little distracted by the bright purple screen she projected in front of herself and began to work away on... whatever. 

"Not that I would be that much interested in your 'affairs' to begin with, but... ditching us like that just because you got a ping from your ex? Really?"

Gabriels hands itched so much for to close themselves around her delicate neck and strangle her blue like Widowmaker.

"And now of all times! I just wanted to make sure you didn't get yourself into trouble. So of course I followed like a good friend would do."

A friend, huh?

"You left us all alone!", she lamented further as a dozen little pictures of dark hallways and a bearded guy in a cowboy hat popped open on her holo screen. "Just because the love of your life pinged you about your embarrassing cowboy son. Its sad. We are family too, you know?"

Gabriel felt all color leaving his face.  
"Love of my-... Cowboy son?! What are you even-...?!"

The Reaper clenched his teeth through a dangerous low growl, but Sombra only lifted her hand and again patted his head in the most condescending gesture of carelessness. "No worries there, big guy. Your secrets will always be save with me. Oh wow, look at that!"

While Gabriel held onto the puny little rest of his patience, Sombra logged into the camera feed of the deadlock inner chambers. Gabriel wasn't surprised at all that Jesse was still good at hiding in near complete darkness. His steps where light and careful to not trip any wires. His sight as sharp as ever. 

The Moment someone walked into him, lights got knocked out pretty fast. Sombra switched between camera feeds and followed the cowboy through the uselessly big facility.

"His orders were 'get the leader, get the guns', right?", she asked curiously. Gabriel unlike her just shrugged and didn't care at all. "Or 'blow up their stash and kill things'. The usual Overwatch bullshit."

Sombra smirked and poked a straightened index finger against the left cheekbone of his mask. "Sounds more like the stuff 'you' did when no one was looking."

Gabriel bristled. "It was efficient!"

Sombra laughed so much that she almost didn't notice the guy who hid behind a giant storage shelf full of old metal scrab. But Gabriel behind her indeed saw him and perked up immediately while he watched the flickering camera feed over her shoulder. 

The guy was big, way bigger than Jesse, but surely not a match for Jesses trained reflexes. He seemed to be quiet like a cat. He stalked the Cowboy like he was ready to pounce him, to rip him apart. With this guy, just from the look of it, it seemed rather personal. Then he stepped into the light - and Gabriels Insides froze while all color left his face. "Well shit... ", he muttered darkly.

Sombra shifted and looked up to him, as curiosity flashed in her bright eyes. "Who's thaaat?", she asked and tilted her head against Gabriels shoulder. Gabriel tried to swallow the tar that suddenly seemed to clog his throat. "That", he said irritably. "Is Lucky Joe Benson."

Sombra frowned and pulled a face. "Lucky? That guy is two legs and half an arm short, how lucky can he be?"

Gabriel didn't care for those details. "Lucky enough to be still alive. And to meet Jesse again... Not a good combination at all."

Sombra took a screen cap and enlarged it, to make it easier to look for the usual gang signs. "He's not the boss, is he."

Gabriel let out a deep humorless snort and dissolved his guns as he crossed his arms. "No, of course not. But he is something so much more dangerous."

Sombra lifted an eyebrow and Gabriel bared his teeth in an agitated snarl. "One of Jesses fucked up Gang-Brothers. Jesse got out. This guy didn't and never tried."  
Suddenly flooded by a feeling of utter restlessness Gabriel sprung up and peered down the road to that damn hatch. "What delay is on the feed?"

Sombra observed him with the hint of a smile and way too much amusement glinting in her eyes. "Five minutes at max", she said and winked. Fucking winked at him. 

Fuck it. Fuck absolutely everything!  
"Wait here."

Before she could say anything that possibly could make him regret this, the Reaper stepped over the edge and vanished out of sight. 

Sombra giggled. "'Jesse', huh?"

* * *

Gabriel had no need to break open closed doors, nor did he need a map of the place to follow Jesses footsteps. All he needed was to follow the trail of dead or unconscious bodies deeper and deeper into the guts of that beast. Deadlock had to die someday. 

The nearer he came to the inner circles of that uselessly big base, the more everything reeked of classic bad-boy bullshit. Deadlock started as a gang full of rebellious teenagers and even though today their metier grew into weapon tradings and bloody murder and robbery, they never seemed to have grown out of that romanticized 'living the way of the free' bullcrap. 

Footsteps echoed around the Reaper like husteling little rats, noises of too many people to count. Furthermore was there a screaming match on-going somewhere in the area in front of him. As things were now, the voices were way too distorted to be understood. 

As he slipped through another door the echoing voices finally stopped to interfere with each other. 

"- tell me you didn't know, huh?! Just some biiig accident!!", growled a strangers voice that had to be Bensons heavy southern drawl, even more pronounced and therefore still more annoying than Jesses. 

"Of course I didn't know, you fucking pigheaded prick!!"

Ah, there was the kid!

Gabriel clenched down onto his teeth as he floated awkwardly slow and as quiet as a mouse through another open hallway filled with useless junk, before he ducked behind an open and brightly lid doorway. 

Lucky Joe Benson stood like a mountain of meat above Jesse who already took quite a beating as it seemed. It was weird. Gabriel had seen the kid take down guys almost double his size and frame. Surely this guy couldn't be such a problem for him. So it had to be sentiment that made him fuck it up this time. 

Jesse already laid rasping on his side and sounded not unlike Morrison as Gabriel broke that hateful mask. While Jesses nose didn't seem broken, he was bleeding heavily and the way he struggled for breath suggested more than one broken rib. There were other much more alarming deeply red bloodstains on the floor just behind his cowering body. Had he been shot...?!

"I never would have left you there...! If I had known you were still alive that day-...", Jesse cried out as Benson stomped right down on his guts. 

Gabriel flinched as he heard the wretched noise that left Jesses dry throat. With that heavy cyberthetic boot of his, Benson could have killed the kid then and there. He simply didn't care if he did. 

"A damn liar, you are!! And a fucking traitor! You should never have left in the first place!!", Benson roared. 

They weren't alone there. A whole circle of deadlocks finest crowded them in a circle and watched. Some commented in hushed voices, others laughed and held themselves out of reach. Just one of the guys tried to be the voice of reason and went for Bensons shoulder. "Joey, come on! Just kill him or what. We don't need no-... "

Benson turned on his heel and platted that guys nose in an almost artful punch before that hand even reached his shoulder. Voice of reason got slammed back so hard and bloody, most likely he was already dead before his skull cracked open on the ground. 

"FUCK YOU, I DON'T CARE!!!", Benson howled like something wounded and threateningly dangerous. 

Meanwhile Jesse moaned and spat and tried to get back up on his feet. Benson gripped his throat and lifted him easily right of the floor. Jesses legs kicked uselessly weak while his struggling exposed two gunshot wounds to his lower right side to Gabriels line of sight.

Gabriel knew these kind of wounds just a little bit too well. Without a medic the kid would die and it would not be fast and clean. 

Jesse bled freely, while his skin visibly paled. His blood colored hands grasped slippery at Bensons wrists while he tried to weakly wriggle out of his death grip. His mouth opened and closed through his helpless gasps as Benson pressed down on his throat. 

"You traitorous little pisstain just left me there! ", Benson growled, frightening like a monstrous villain. "You left me there to die!!"

"The explosion -... It ripped off my arm...! I wasn't even conscious after that, you dim-witted fuckhead!", Jesse croaked through the vice around his throat. "My arm was... g- gone an I puked half my guts out...?! I cant even remember-... "

"FUCKING LIER!!!", Benson roared and shook Jesse as easily as a puppet while droplets of dark red blood mottled the ground. "I lost 'everything' that damn day, fucking all of it! From my legs, to my arm, my right eye - even my fucking dick and you just fucked us over and thought you could leave just like that?! And now you come back and expect me not to kill you for the hell you and your band of want-to-be-heros put me through?!"

Gabriels racing thoughts stumbled to a sudden halt. Something about this fight felt suddenly uncomfortably familiar. Well shit, he had no time for that, Jesse was dying...! 

Filled to the brim with righteous rage on Jesses behalf he dissolved down to whirling black smoke and already steeled himself for some new bullet holes in his coat - as suddenly a hellish loud shrieking noise echoed through the open storage hall and the already feeble lights flickered to darkness like snuffed out candles. Somebody seemed to have overloaded or maybe even busted their generator.

Gabriel grinned.

While the Deadlock guys fumbled in the sudden darkness, Gabriel slipped inside the hall and figured out the best angle before he let hell rain down on all of them. Since Jesse was still in Bensons hold, upright and in the line of fire, Gabriel had to be a little more picky with his targets as he cleared the area, but it was over so fast, there was not even time for screams and cries for mercy. 

They died in dozens and his nanites sung in his blood and made him feel so alive. The bodies didn't even drop before his swarm ripped their essence apart and used it to repair the state of decay Gabriel could never shake. He laughed as his wounds healed and joints stopped hurting and his skin felt as if it was set ablaze with so badly needed energy. 

It was over and done with in seconds and finally only Benson was left alive. Petrified he stood eyes wide with horror in the surrounding darkness, the hostage still swaying in his claw-like hand. "Reaper...!", he whimpered in terrified awe as slowly sank in that he was about to die as well. "What the-... Who fucking gave you-... You aren't supposed to be here?!"

The Reaper couldn't help the snort. Whom was that waste of space telling that. "Snitch on me, I guess", he drawled with a sneer and crowded the bulking frame of Benson gradually backwards. "You have something on your hands", the Reaper growled and tilted his head from one side to the other as dozens of blood red eyes opened in his wake. "That is quite dear to me..."

Benson swayed but held onto Jesse like shield. At least he didn't dare to strangle him further or to simply break his neck. "Y- you aren't s- supposed to-...!", he whimpered and with flashing eyes, the Reaper just lost the puny rest of his patience.

"HAND HIM TO ME!"

Some ground alarm was triggered. Sirens blared alive and brightly orange emergency lighting lit up the bloody slaughter that had happened just some seconds ago. 

Bensons eyes bulged in panic as inhumanly sharp teeth glinted in the flickering light and made him think of big bad Wolfs and monsters under the bed. As the Reapers shadows came alive and went for him, he cried out like the coward he was and let Jesse slip from his grip, his revenge utterly forgotten and his former brother left behind. 

The Reaper caught the wounded body, before he even touched the ground. Carefully like he was handling fragile bird bones he stretched Jesse out, exposed his wounds and let his nanites slip into the delicate flesh to dissolve the bullets that had burried themselves way too deep in Jesses guts and now proceeded to poison his blood. 

Jesse cried out in utter agony, almost too weak to stay alive while his hands twitched in search for something to hold onto. Gabriel disbanded his gloves and talons and took hold of his right hand while with the other he felt for Jesses throat, monitored the racing pulse under his fingertips. 

"It's alright, don't worry. You are alright. Everything will be fine", he murmured lowly, while he observed Jesse's quickly weakening pulse and the cold sweat that began to cover his face. "Everything will be alright", the Reaper snarled and wasn't sure what he was supposed to do, because Jesse was dying. He knew this sight, he even remembered the distinctive smell of Jesses blood and it was all so very familiar!

Jesses rasping gasps for air came slower and slower while his wide eyes lost their focus. Gabriel held him in his arms and lowly hummed because there was nothing he could do. Even if he ripped himself apart and set his nanites to work, they needed time to adjust and a mostly stable subject to work on. Jesse wasn't a supersoldier. Gabriels nanites would kill him. 

So he hummed low and calming and tried to compensate for the physically warmth he wasn't able to give him as the shivers started. The least he could do now was to calm down an in blind panic racing mind. Because if Jesse was about to die, he didn't deserve to be scared. He was a hero after all. 

A loud shriek wrenched Gabriel out of his depressive musings. Another scream was followed by a salve of gunfire. Gabriel would have recognized the sound of that damn weapon anywhere. 

"Jack!!"

Soldier76 rushed into the hall like a wrathful spirit, turned on his heel and greeted the last of his persuers with a load full of helix rockets right into their damn stupid faces. "Gabe, thank god...!"

It was quite funny how Jack didn't even care about all the mangled bodies around them. Just a second later he drifted to a halt beside them, fell to his knees and put his weapon aside without a thought about the open doorway in his back. With practiced ease he leaned over Jesse, stretched his throat and felt for his pulse. "Is he alright? Are you?!"

While Gabriel watched him, he tried to get a look at his eyes, hidden behind another hateful visor, but Jack didn't pay attention to him at all while he worked. Gabriel felt a sudden heat flare alive in his core as he got aware that Jack trusted him enough to let him watch his back again. That he didn't even give one thought to the possibility that the Reaper could harm him or his patient. 

Suddenly Gabriel got reminded of all the times this exact scene had happened before and with mind-numbing relieve he remembered, that Jack Morrison, before he had been Strike Commander, Captain or SEP Soldier he had also been a resourceful combat medic. 

"Does he look alright to you, you useless shit? Just shut it and get him stabilized."

Jesse was no longer conscious as Gabriel set his nanites to work in the soft yellow glow of Jacks biotic emitters. It was fine. Everything would be alright. True heros never died after all.

* * *

As Gabriel stepped out in the open to find even more deadlock corpses on the doorstep, he somehow felt as if he aged twenty more years in just ten minutes. What was he actually doing here...? 

"Had fun?", quipped Sombra and waved a greeting. It wasn't clear why she felt the need to ask while she surely saw everything that had happened inside on screen. 

"You showed him the way in?", Gabriel muttered utterly exhausted. Sombra giggled. "Wasn't exactly hard to find. But he was so very glad to see you there, wasn't that a nice sight?"

Gabriel blinked and decided against an answer. Just chose a random direction to walk away. Sombra sat up from her place on a crate by the door and followed him instantly. 

"Heeeh", she whined. "I actually meant that! The guy came running like a loon, you should have seen that! Like a one man army, shooting around like a maniac."

Jep, that was Jack. Gabriel scoffed. "Be thankful his aim and reflexes are as good as ever, or you would be pushing daisies like these guys."

Sombra grinned widely. "It was kinda frightening till he jumped to cover and strained his back. At least the minute he needed to cover it up gave him some time to calm it down a notch. Phew!"

Gabriel couldn't help the ugly snort that rushed through his nose and had him wheezing just a moment later. Sombra looked pretty much satisfied with herself till her gaze shot back to the gunned down deadlock base.

"Is he alright?"

"The old man?", Gabriel huffed. "Sure he is. Persistent as shit on a heel."

Sombra sniffed. "You know I didn't mean your lucky one. What about McCree? Jesse?"

Gabriel stilled. Was Jesse alright?  
Well, he didn't die today, but was he truly alright...? 

"No, I... guess not", Gabriel murmured under his breath. Sombra wanted to ask more questions but a low rumble charged the air around them with a sudden lot of static energy. A loud screeching noise echoed down the street and suddenly a shock wave rolled right over their heads, so hard it knocked them both over. 

With wide eyes Sombra sat on the concrete and stared into the blazing inferno. A gigantic brightly red and yellow fireball roared like a lightning white beast where once had been the deadlock hideout. 

Gabriel let out a bone deep sigh.  
"'Blow up their stash and kill things' it is."

Sombra leaned back on her hands while she watched the raging firestorm in open fascination. "You were right. It's pretty efficient, indeed."

**Author's Note:**

> [Buy Me a Coffee](https://ko-fi.com/G2G088M9)


End file.
